Things They Don't Tell You About Having A Newborn

On Wednesday night I went to our weekly Bake Off night! I ate far too much Oreo cake and washed it down with huge amounts of tea....it was FAB.

Anyway whilst there we obviously sat around chatting like old hens. There were 5 of us there this week plus little Miss.
Two of the girls are pregnant and one has a 10 week old baby. Naturally the conversation turned to birth stories and it got me thinking that not many people tell you really what happens in the first few hours and days with your newborn. We spent a good hour talking about our "first times" with our babies and imparting our wisdom on the two pregnant chicks so I thought I would share our wisdom with you too.

Yes the euphoria takes over and you're suddenly overwhelmed with a lot of visitors but what next??

1. Nappy Change....Happens Quickly & You Won't Be Prepared.

Yes the first nappy change can happen pretty quickly after birth. Its disgusting you are never prepared for it! How something so small can produce something so vile is beyond me? Anyway I can virtually guarantee you won't have everything immediatley to hand. You will then spend 10 mins deliberating how to get from the side of the bed to the cupboard without shit going everywhere!
Top Tip sleep with nappies, wipes, spare babygrow under your pillow!

2. Getting to the Shops = Scary!!

You spend 3-4 days holed up in the house after the birth. You've had your fill of visitors cooing over the baby and decide you need to shift the cabin fever and take your new pram (obvs needs showing off it cost like £2987892748973498) to the shop.
Suddenly what should be a 10 min walk takes 2 hours.
The baby needs feeding before you go then winding and changing. You set off to the shop changing bag ready under the pram and you realise you can't get anything else in the pram!
Heave forbid you should actually drive......try find a parking space big enough, assemble the pram and get baby out.......Yeah good luck there.....by 8 months you might have it figured out!

3. Unreasonable....You....Never??

You suddenly spend hours on end losing precious precious sleep over the most ridiculous deathly scenarios......I mean obviously an eagle will swoop through that slightly open window and steel your baby in the 30 seconds it takes to make a much needed cuppa!

4. Not One Mother Knows What They Are Doing

Everyone starts off in the same boat! Sure you'll get visits from well meaning friends and relatives telling you how they did things and you "really" should do it their way!
You want the truth? What works for them probably will NOT work for you!

5. Sleep!!!!

Yes you will sleep again! I know it probably doesn't feel like it but you will...however I can assure you, you will probably not sleep in the same way as you did pre baby until they are 18+.....I know i'm still waiting 12 years on!!!

August Pinterest Worth Home Wear

It has been a while since I did a home wear wish list, So I thought it was time for a new one.
I know summer is all but over - if the weather here is anything to go by summer was done before it actually started.
But when trawling the internet for some cute home wear I came across some of these cute summery items that could pro long the summer at least inside for a little while longer.

1. Ceramic Plant Pot H & M

2. Large Wire Basket H & M

3. Everything is Fantastic Cushion

4. Hello Sunshine Banner

5. Flamingo Tumbler Marks & Spencer

6. Pineapple Candle TK Maxx

7. Fashion Coffee Table Book TK Maxx

8. Mexicana Cushion Amara

9. Copper Lamp Oliver Bonas

10. Metal Basket H & M

11. Flamingo Cushion Asda

12. Lemon Grass Candle TK Maxx

13. Pineapple Lamp Oliver Bonas

Bake Off is Back

I'm a little late with this post this year but THE BAKE OFF IS BACK and I for one am so bloody happy!

I blogged about my love for the Bake Off Last year and I can safely say I'm no nearer learning to bake than I was then. Admittedly eating and baking cakes isn't good for my on again off again sugar free diet.

Over the course of this year I've made some really amazing friends! One of whom can bake!!!! Pretty sure she is the only person I know that can! Anyway. It was decided that every week the bake off is on we would have a little tea party at my friends house complete with vintage china and cake!
It has been lovely so far this year.

Made even better by the fact that there is no alcohol involved and Little Miss D gets to come with me every week!

At the moment I'm feeling really grateful for having such amazing people in my life - and amazing Cake!

All About The Weekend #2

This weekend was a little different for me.
O went away for the weekend with his dad climbing in the Lake District so it was just me and the Little Miss!
I've never been in this situation before and its not often that D and I get to spend time together without having to dash off and pick O up.

Saturday started with a gorgeous lie in and a lot of time spent on the sofa re watching Pretty Little Liars! We've started again from season 1... purely because after seeing the finale I wanted to pick holes in the plot!

We then went horse riding in the afternoon followed by a girlie trip to the beach with some of my friends!

We had a great evening eating chips, ice cream and waffles and going on all the rides at the amusements,
I'm not usually a big fan of Skegness but it was fun as a little treat for D.

On Sunday we went up to Filey to get our boy back!
We spent the afternoon on the beach hunting for fossils and playing in the sea.

It was great as the kids had obviously missed each other and actually got on with each other for the whole day! It was lovely to see them playing together and actually being friends!

Next weekend I plan on relaxing! School starts again soon and I don't feel like we've stopped since they broke up yet!

Preserving Memories

Since I had the kids we've been taking photos of them almost daily. I love documenting them growing up and seeing how much they've changed. It's also nice to look back on days out and remember the good times we've spent with them.

I have loads of files on my laptop just full of digital family photos, and other than print and frame the odd few I've never done anything with them.

A couple of weeks ago I was trawling the internet and saw that Photobox had an offer on printed photobooks.

I've been thinking about buying some coffee table books for a while now but never gotten round to it and thought this would be a nice addition when I finally do get round to buying some.

So I spent some time sorting out my photos - trying to get an even number of each child included in the book - No need to cause more arguments, and set about uploading them. 

This was a fairly easy and painless process. The difficulty came in deciding which picture should go where.

I was fairly sure it would take a while for the book to be delivered, there was a lot of pages (100+ I think) to print but it arrived pretty quickly - within about 4 days I think.

The quality of the pages is lovely! Some of the prints have come out a little bit blurry but you can only really tell if you look super closely. Baring in mind these books aren't really meant to be studied too hard you really wouldn't know.

Overall I am so happy with the quality and the service provided by Photobox. I'm hoping the book survives sticky fingers and becomes a piece of family history that the kids will one day look at and remember the good times.

What I Did In The Gym

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you will know that i've really been struggling to get myself motivated and to start smashing it in the gym again.
Therefore I have decided to keep a "diary" on my blog. This is partly so I can see what I'm doing and can keep an eye on my goals etc but this is also to keep me accountable.

Today I had a session with my personal trainer. We focused mainly on back and legs....there was also a small amount of HIIT in there......I hate cardio with a passion so I wasn't best pleased.

Exercise 1 - Deadlifts
4 x 45kg for 10 reps

Exercise 2 - Box Lunges Followed by Plyometric Squat Jumps
4 x 10kg (each hand) for 10 reps per leg
4 x 10 Squat Jumps using body weight

Exercise 3 - Assisted Pull Ups
4 x 54kg for 10 reps

Exercise 4 - Seated Cable Row
4 x 30kg for 10 reps

Exercise 5 - Reverse Fly
4 x 5kg for 10 reps

Exercise 6 - Upright Row
4 x 7kg for 10 reps

Exercise 7 - Side Raise
4 x 4kg for 10 reps

HIIT

2 min warm up walk
1 min jog
30 sec sprint
1 min recovery
1 min jog
30 sec sprint
1 min recovery
2 min jog/run

I'm not sure when I'm next getting to the gym but will keep updating - even if it is just on the bottom of another post.
I'd love to know if you have any other back exercises that you recommend?

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

What would you take to a desert island? You will no doubt have been asked this question in the past. It makes a great ice breaker when you meet new people.
Obviously after you've thought about taking your kids, other half, cats, dogs etc you can turn to thinking about material things that you would take with you.

I decided to give some thought to this question,
I would obviously want to take photos and memories with me, but it was more interesting to answer this question thinking about the items I use in my day to day life that I couldn't possibly live without.........

1) My Laptop (praying there was a random Wifi connection - yes I know unlikely)
I have a pretty basic laptop not a fancy Mac one but I do LOVE it. I use it everyday, mainly for watching Pretty Little Liars on Netflix (WHO IS A????) but it also gets used for work and blogging. My laptop contains all my photos and music and therefore most of my memories from the last few years,

2) My IPhone.
I mean....obvs.......I'm ashamed to say it but I am fairly glued to my Iphone. I'm always checking Instagram or Twitter for work and pleasure. I use the camera on an almost hourly basis and of course it contains all my fave workout playlists for when I'm hitting the gym.

3) Orange Camera/Handbag
Technically this bag isn't a camera bag, but I find it the perfect size to carry my camera, spare lens and still fit my purse and phone in.
I do really need to buy a camera cube to protect my camera when I'm out and about.

4) DSLR Camera
This is a fairly recent development. I bought my camera not to long ago for blogging purposes. To be honest at first I found it a bit embarassing taking such a big camera pretty much everywhere with me let alone whipping it out in some pretty random places but now it's become like second nature to me......"Blogger Problems"

5) Rimmel "Kate" Lipstick in Shade 40.
Another recent development. I've started wearing Lipstick. I'm not sure when this started to be honest but I can't get enough of pretty nude colour lipsticks. For either day time or a night out this has to be my absolute favourite.
It's moisturising and pigmented giving a nice natural colour.

6) Garnier BB Cream.
I've mentioned this before and would be a must if I was left on a desert island. It contains SPF and provides amazing coverage but isn't too cakey. Perfect for hot summer, beach weather!

What would you need to take to a desert island?

All About The Weekend!

Weekends are always a bit challenging in my household. Not only have I got two kids at two very different stages I also have to factor in all the activities the kids want to do.
Saturdays are usually spent acting as a taxi and ferrying one or the other around whilst trying to feed and entertain the other.

Anyway.....

This weekend was a little bit different.
Usually O goes cycling on a Saturday morning and me and D are left to find something to do for 2-3 hours before we pick him up. This week however cycling was cancelled so I took the opportunity to take the kids to the Saturday morning kids club at the Odeon!

Films tend to start at 10am and with tickets only costing £2.50 each I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.
The Odeon in Lincoln only shows one film for the kids club and this week they were showing Home. Neither of the kids had seen it and both really enjoyed it. I do usually find it hard to find a film they can both watch and enjoy due to the large age gap between them.

Saturday afternoon saw the usual routine of D at horse riding!

Saturday evening was different this week. We were invited to a friends field party. I forgot my camera and therefore forgot to take any photos but it was fab. The kids played on the bouncy castle and water slide whilst we ate BBQ food and drank champagne.....very civilised.......I might have managed to nip out for a sneaky cocktail or two as well......

Sunday morning started as a lazy morning with teacakes and lots of tea!

We decided after lunch we'd head to Belton House for a coffee and a play.
Despite the moaning it was a really lovely afternoon.

Whilst it may not be very exciting I think I like documenting the weekends. I might carry on with it. Lazy weekends and time spent together is what I want to remember of the kids growing up!